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Your (kids') schools are run by idiots, facsists, and maybe pedophiles.

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I find it interesting how isolated incidents of idiotic restrictions and actions can damn the entire educational system and everyone who is a part of it, when this same logic is applied to no other arena of public life.

The educational system is the visible authority in the portion of an individual's life when they're starting to dislike authority. There's no way the generalized hatred for educators is completely rational.

I would say the police are treated much the same around here.

I would agree somewhat. Then again, they suffer from a lot of the same early association issues that educators do, and they too are easy (potentially easier, in fact) to lump into a faceless mass of non-humanity to be judged based on the actions of individuals, actions that only make the news if they are substantially negative in context, it would seem.

I mean, it's not surprising that a forum whose population is overwhelmingly dominated by younger males would have a meta-beef against institutional authority figures. It's still somewhat disturbing, though.

I think you're taking this a bit too far. I'm sure no one here believes that every single person that works at a high school in an administrative position in the United States is an absolute moron. There are exceptions to the rule to be certain.

I think you're taking this a bit too far. I'm sure no one here believes that every single person that works at a high school in an administrative position in the United States is an absolute moron. There are exceptions to the rule to be certain.

Between this and the public school/homeschool thread, and the education funding thread a couple months ago, I don't think I'm really over reacting at all.

The starting assumption for educators in general and school administration in particular seems that they are at best well-meaning lobotomy cases and more likely jerks that took the job specifically for the chance to ruin childhoods. This isn't my (obviously anecdotal) experience, and it's definitely not the impression I get now that I'm actively researching the educational system. It seems to be purely a construct of youth rebellion baggage and association error when looking at the news.

I think you're taking this a bit too far. I'm sure no one here believes that every single person that works at a high school in an administrative position in the United States is an absolute moron. There are exceptions to the rule to be certain.

Between this and the public school/homeschool thread, and the education funding thread a couple months ago, I don't think I'm really over reacting at all.

The starting assumption for educators in general and school administration in particular seems that they are at best well-meaning lobotomy cases and more likely jerks that took the job specifically for the chance to ruin childhoods. This isn't my (obviously anecdotal) experience, and it's definitely not the impression I get now that I'm actively researching the educational system. It seems to be purely a construct of youth rebellion baggage and association error when looking at the news.

Again, three high schools, three districts, two states.

One had a policy of pressing charges against all parties involved in any altercation, regardless of any witness statements or circumstances. Somebody walks up and punches you in the face, and you push them away? Assault charge, let the court figure it out. Yeah, it's awesome that an administration would completely avoid at all trying to deal with any events that took place in their school, and instead introduce 15-year-olds to the criminal justice system for defending themselves.

On a personal note, in another school I ran into a principal who gave me detention for swearing. Why was I swearing? Because, as an eight grader, three juniors (yay 7-12 mixed Jr/Sr high school) were chasing my down the hallway to (at least according to them) kick my ass. Yes, these students were seen chasing me by the same teacher that reported me. But, apparently because they hadn't actually kicked my ass yet they were not his concern. So I get punished, they do not. Awesomesauce.

And lastly, banning shorts in Phoenix. Gotta love Mormon administrators. Beyond that, same high school wasn't going to let a kid walk at graduation in the ceremony because he was a couple credits short...of course, he was a couple credits short because he had dropped out of school for several semesters to fight cancer. He'd worked his ass off, gone in summer, and he was already scheduled to pick up those last credits the coming summer. No matter. Policy's a policy, says the administration, their hands are tied...no student without X credits can walk in the graduation ceremony (note that nobody was asking them to actually hand him a diploma). Oh, wait, that's not true...doesn't seem to be a problem for foreign exchange students. But oh well.

That last one led to a riot. Literally. With marching, riot cops blocking streets, the whole nine yards. Apparently it was on CNN.

So, three out of three.

I could also write a novella about the terrible, terrible fucktards that ran schools in my wife's district (she was a teacher for five years). Most of that was at the elementary level (she was an elementary teacher) so it doesn't have as obvious an "impact" to most people. However a lot of it probably set kids up for failure from a pretty early age, so maybe it's even worse.

And that's beyond the "zero tolerance" policies that have become standard across the country. You know what should have "zero tolerance" policies? Actual firearms, and (maybe) actual illicit drugs. Not Midol, not obvious squirt guns. But again, administrators who don't have the balls to do their fucking jobs, so they enact blanket policies that take away the need to.

And again, this isn't aimed at educators. On that end, abject incompetence or downright malice is the exception, most are decent people who care.

I would agree somewhat. Then again, they suffer from a lot of the same early association issues that educators do, and they too are easy (potentially easier, in fact) to lump into a faceless mass of non-humanity to be judged based on the actions of individuals, actions that only make the news if they are substantially negative in context, it would seem.

Ha. Not to turn this into a cop thread, but that's also a well-deserved reputation. And again, aside perhaps from Thanatos, most of us are willing to say that a majority of cops don't commit heinous acts against the citizens they're supposed to protect. Merely that most of them, if/when they see such acts, do nothing to stop it (and, in most cases, work to actively cover it up). That's been shown time and time again. You want to talk about isolated acts of individuals? Serpico is the exception, not the rule. And yeah, I've known tons of cops (being in the Guard), and every last one has personally told me (or me as part of a group) stories of abusing their position. We're talking well over a dozen cops, different departments, different states. Every last one.

Some occupations have a perception of incompetence or corruption for a reason. And part of the reason they get away with it is because people like you are always willing to jump to their defense. Usually because either A) they are or desire to be in the same profession or B) they have friends or family in the same profession. Well, here's hoping you or those you know are one of the few decent ones, because yes most of us will admit they exist. Odds aren't good, though, so take a long hard look.

I think there's a lot of malice assumed where it's not due, especially when it comes to public officials.

And I'm not "jumping" to the defense of anyone. If anything, this is something that's been building for years watching people take shots at the education system and everyone involved in it on these forums. People occasionally do stupid things, and far be it from me to defend stupid acts, but the profile associated with any minor fuck up at a school is orders of magnitude higher than it would be in the private sector. Admittedly, there's a reason for that, and people who work in education need to be held to higher standards because of the importance of what they do for our society. My issue really starts when the assumption is that the best case scenario for the people that are in charge of making sure our kids are learning is that they're malice-neutral baboons that are going to ruin lives unintentionally instead of the standard evil mustachioed villains that are actively eroding the rights of our youth.

That's a fucked up view of the realities of our educational system that I'm not going to condone. Especially given the thousands upon thousands of people in that field that do great jobs every day and are subsequently ignored because of it.

I feel like the only computer courses that *need* to be taught in high school are computer keyboarding and how to use Excel. Web Design and computer programming are interesting classes as well, but it doesn't matter if you learn them in high school or not as most colleges will require you to take them again anyway. I learned how to use a computer in all of about an hour when I was 10 years old, and while I'm not an idiot, I feel like they are pretty easy to figure out; its definitely not something that needs to be taught in high school.

It is for a lot of people. And besides, there are lots of classes various students don't need but are mandatory to make sure they do know what the Hell they're doing.

The thing is, computers are the one thing where help is provided almost every step of the way without needing outside assistance. If I don't understand how to work a car, I'm gonna need someone to show me how. A computer, on the other hand, has help buttons located just about everywhere, and everything is labeled pretty clearly. Hell, there is a "start" button for crying out loud. As long as you go into it *wanting* to learn how to use it, you will be able to. The only people who feel like computers are alien technology are those who don't want to use them but feel like they have to for a job or something.

All I can say is that the schools are what society made them to be. It sucks that schools have, for example, a policy that says you hand out equal punishment in a fight regardless of what actually happened. But you know what you get when you don't have that? You get stories about how black kids always get thrown in jail if they fight at school, whereas the white kids get off with a summary judgment of "boys will be boys." If you give an administratior the common sense authority to determine whether it was a brawl or one kid trying to defend himself from an aggressor, unfortunately the common sense he has may be fraught with complications and prejudices. And even if it isn't, someone else might claim it is anyway. In the end, in order to get on with your day and actually educate without a lawyer reviewing your every step, you have to take a zero-tolerance approach to situations. Society is fickle and emotional and unforgiving if you don't.

In this particular case, I think if there is foul play, it will likely be an overzealous or somewhat disturbed IT guy, and not necessarily something indicative of school administrators. It still boggles my mind to believe that an administration would have actually thought it best to covertly and randomly monitor children in their homes.

I feel like the only computer courses that *need* to be taught in high school are computer keyboarding and how to use Excel. Web Design and computer programming are interesting classes as well, but it doesn't matter if you learn them in high school or not as most colleges will require you to take them again anyway. I learned how to use a computer in all of about an hour when I was 10 years old, and while I'm not an idiot, I feel like they are pretty easy to figure out; its definitely not something that needs to be taught in high school.

It is for a lot of people. And besides, there are lots of classes various students don't need but are mandatory to make sure they do know what the Hell they're doing.

The thing is, computers are the one thing where help is provided almost every step of the way without needing outside assistance. If I don't understand how to work a car, I'm gonna need someone to show me how. A computer, on the other hand, has help buttons located just about everywhere, and everything is labeled pretty clearly. Hell, there is a "start" button for crying out loud. As long as you go into it *wanting* to learn how to use it, you will be able to. The only people who feel like computers are alien technology are those who don't want to use them but feel like they have to for a job or something.

Even that basic help stuff requires basic computer literacy to be able to understand it's function.

The laptops thing is something that a lot of schools are going to these days. The push to prepare students for a technology saturated job market is strong enough that it's going to be something that you'll see just about anywhere that can afford it in the next decade or so, assuming some other form of technology integration doesn't upend it. The real problem is that things are changing so fast that the people who are developing the cirricula for schools with computers grew up well before such things were even a possibility, so they don't really have the same instincts regarding it that they would something like direct math instruction. It's trial and error even moreso than almost any other instructional technique, even though the need for it is pretty much universally recognized at this point, and the issues and success rates we're seeing for it are reflecting that.

My mother was a teacher, my wife is a teacher, and I completed a good portion of my undergrad degree taking classes in the educational administration training program. I think the criteria for my initial impression of an administrator is pretty clear: did you spend a substantial ammount of time as a classroom teacher before deciding to move into administration?

If not, I'll assume you're a self interested prick who doesn't give half a crap about your students or your teachers until you show otherwise.

My mother was a teacher, my wife is a teacher, and I completed a good portion of my undergrad degree taking classes in the educational administration training program. I think the criteria for my initial impression of an administrator is pretty clear: did you spend a substantial ammount of time as a classroom teacher before deciding to move into administration?

If not, I'll assume you're a self interested prick who doesn't give half a crap about your students or your teachers until you show otherwise.

While I agree that a teaching background is a great asset, I think we need to recognize that the administration skills aren't the same as teaching skills.

However, in my experience management that has production experience tends to be superior. Whether that's administrators who have taught, or CEOs who have worked on the factory floor.

I think that having teaching experience is a huge asset to any given administrator, but it's hardly an absolute indicator of quality.

Then again, in the places I'm looking to teach there aren't likely to be any that were hired directly to administrative positions. In fact, I'm probably going to be more qualified on paper than whoever winds up overseeing me. Inner city schools aren't known for their ability to attract highly sought after applicants.

I don't know of many people who went STRAIGHT from being in the classroom to being an administrator; generally they had to go back and get some kind of additional training. And I'm not saying any admin who wasn't a teacher is terrible, just that they're not going to get much of a benefit of the doubt initially - they'll have to prove that they're looking out for the good of the school rather than the good of their career prospects before I'll really believe it.

Here's a PBS Frontline segment featuring Dan Ackerman, Vice Principal for IS 339 in Bronx, NY talking about how awesome it is to use laptop webcams to spy on and otherwise "mess with" 6th and 7th grade students who "don't realize we are watching."

what the fuck kinda school district can afford to send laptops home with kids???

One that's wasting their money. Kids in middle/high school do not need their own laptops in order to be educated.

Anyone who grows up without a computer is at a disadvantage in later life, at least in this current century.

I agree.

However, even if you're committed to get a computer into the hands of every student, why a friggin' Macbook? I love Macs, but it seems like barebones netbooks were made for this sort of thing.

Lower Merion is one of the richest towns (defined as areas with 20k+ population) in the US. Mean household income is ~$185k, higher than Bethesda, MD or Beverly Hills, CA. Per-student spending in the school district is ~$23k.

Frankly, it's surprising that they got "just" plain ol' Macbooks and not Pros or Airs or something. A $1000 Macbook (the SD bought 2620 laptops for $2.6 million) is just 4% of spending for a single student in a single year.

Lower Merion is one of the richest towns (defined as areas with 20k+ population) in the US. Mean household income is ~$185k, higher than Bethesda, MD or Beverly Hills, CA. Per-student spending in the school district is ~$23k.

Frankly, it's surprising that they got "just" plain ol' Macbooks and not Pros or Airs or something. A $1000 Macbook (the SD bought 2620 laptops for $2.6 million) is just 4% of spending for a single student in a single year.

Here's a PBS Frontline segment featuring Dan Ackerman, Vice Principal for IS 339 in Bronx, NY talking about how awesome it is to use laptop webcams to spy on and otherwise "mess with" 6th and 7th grade students who "don't realize we are watching."

That's not nearly the same thing that was going on in PA. Here, the kids themselves are turning the webcams on and the administrators are just viewing what is on their screen. I'm okay with them doing this since its during school and the kids are supposed to be studying and not editing their myspace or facebook pages. But in PA, where they are not just checking out what students have on their screens at home, but also actively turning their webcams on and spying on them is a huge breach of privacy.

Here's a PBS Frontline segment featuring Dan Ackerman, Vice Principal for IS 339 in Bronx, NY talking about how awesome it is to use laptop webcams to spy on and otherwise "mess with" 6th and 7th grade students who "don't realize we are watching."

Lower Merion is one of the richest towns (defined as areas with 20k+ population) in the US. Mean household income is ~$185k, higher than Bethesda, MD or Beverly Hills, CA. Per-student spending in the school district is ~$23k.

Frankly, it's surprising that they got "just" plain ol' Macbooks and not Pros or Airs or something. A $1000 Macbook (the SD bought 2620 laptops for $2.6 million) is just 4% of spending for a single student in a single year.

Lower Merion is one of the richest towns (defined as areas with 20k+ population) in the US. Mean household income is ~$185k, higher than Bethesda, MD or Beverly Hills, CA. Per-student spending in the school district is ~$23k.

Frankly, it's surprising that they got "just" plain ol' Macbooks and not Pros or Airs or something. A $1000 Macbook (the SD bought 2620 laptops for $2.6 million) is just 4% of spending for a single student in a single year.

*Looks at DC school system and beats head against desk*

The fuck do you expect when school funding is tied to property taxes?

There are some things that make sense to be funded by property taxes (roads and other infrastructure for instance, fire/emergency services/law enforcement to a certain extent) . Schools are not one of them

Lower Merion is one of the richest towns (defined as areas with 20k+ population) in the US. Mean household income is ~$185k, higher than Bethesda, MD or Beverly Hills, CA. Per-student spending in the school district is ~$23k.

Frankly, it's surprising that they got "just" plain ol' Macbooks and not Pros or Airs or something. A $1000 Macbook (the SD bought 2620 laptops for $2.6 million) is just 4% of spending for a single student in a single year.

*Looks at DC school system and beats head against desk*

The fuck do you expect when school funding is tied to property taxes?

There are some things that make sense to be funded by property taxes (roads and other infrastructure for instance, fire/emergency services/law enforcement to a certain extent) . Schools are not one of them

I agree 100%. Unfortunately, we have enough trouble selling school funding as it is. What happens when you talk about funding someone else's school?

This I'm okay with. It's on school grounds, using school property, and the line is rather clear on students doing things they should / shouldn't be doing.

Assuming, of course, that students and their families are fully informed about the monitoring, the rules are clear and the students don't have to use the school laptops. And assuming that the people doing the monitoring aren't dicks. Somebody who brags on national TV that he uses laptop monitors to "mess with" the students is both too stupid and too creepy to be allowed to work at a school.

Somebody who brags on national TV that he uses laptop monitors to "mess with" the students is both too stupid and too creepy to be allowed to work at a school.

I dunno about the creepy part (just because children are involved doesn't mean the pedo flag has to be raised). He's certainly a silly goose for the bragging, but aside from that, what is the hypothetical harm of the monitoring in that specific case?

I agree 100%. Unfortunately, we have enough trouble selling school funding as it is. What happens when you talk about funding someone else's school?

No, the real problem is that non-local funding of schools is virtually impossible. Try to tell the rich neighborhood that they can't buy supplies, or fund a special bonus for teachers, or hold fundraisers, etc. Good luck.

I agree 100%. Unfortunately, we have enough trouble selling school funding as it is. What happens when you talk about funding someone else's school?

No, the real problem is that non-local funding of schools is virtually impossible. Try to tell the rich neighborhood that they can't buy supplies, or fund a special bonus for teachers, or hold fundraisers, etc. Good luck.

Official school funding and financial gifts to schools are two very different animals.

It's entirely possible to federalize school funding to the degree that there aren't massive disparities in school quality based on the tax bracket of their attendees. There's really no way to standardize having rich benefactors to pay for new computer labs or sporting equipment, though.

Man, if people want to invest in schools on a private medium, more power to them. I mean, I'm sure there's frivilous ways to waste money vs. more useful forms of donation, but something is better than nothing.

On the other hand though, no school should have to rely on that sort of funding.

Lower Merion is one of the richest towns (defined as areas with 20k+ population) in the US. Mean household income is ~$185k, higher than Bethesda, MD or Beverly Hills, CA. Per-student spending in the school district is ~$23k.

Frankly, it's surprising that they got "just" plain ol' Macbooks and not Pros or Airs or something. A $1000 Macbook (the SD bought 2620 laptops for $2.6 million) is just 4% of spending for a single student in a single year.

*Looks at DC school system and beats head against desk*

The fuck do you expect when school funding is tied to property taxes?

There are some things that make sense to be funded by property taxes (roads and other infrastructure for instance, fire/emergency services/law enforcement to a certain extent) . Schools are not one of them

I agree 100%. Unfortunately, we have enough trouble selling school funding as it is. What happens when you talk about funding someone else's school?

There's always busing. MA maintains a program where promising student attend schools in affluent communities and stay with host families during the week. It's not perfect, but it does mean there are schools rich enough to maintain multilevel special needs departments with minimal grumbling.

Come to think of it, doesn't baseball have some system where well funded franchises send money to the losers?

There's always busing. MA maintains a program where promising student attend schools in affluent communities and stay with host families during the week. It's not perfect, but it does mean there are schools rich enough to maintain multilevel special needs departments with minimal grumbling.

Come to think of it, doesn't baseball have some system where well funded franchises send money to the losers?

Busing hasn't exactly led to successful schools. And METCO and the like aren't a solution to bad schools, they're just lifeboats for talented poor minority students to go from bad schools in poor neighborhoods to wealthy suburbs with good schools. A better system would be to not have bad schools

I dunno about the creepy part (just because children are involved doesn't mean the pedo flag has to be raised). He's certainly a silly goose for the bragging, but aside from that, what is the hypothetical harm of the monitoring in that specific case?

Two information-technology employees of the Lower Merion School District have been placed on leave while an investigation continues into the use of remote surveillance software on student laptops.

The two people authorized to activate the software - Michael Perbix, a network technician, and Carol Cafiero, information systems coordinator - were put on paid leave last week while lawyers and technicians examine how the remote system was used, The Inquirer learned yesterday.

Lawyers for Cafiero and Perbix said their clients did nothing wrong. Perbix and Cafiero turned on the remote software only when a laptop was reported missing, they said - and administrators knew what they were doing.

"A phone call had to come from the high school to turn it on," said Charles Mandracchia, attorney for Cafiero. "And if it was turned on, it was turned on with the understanding that the computer was either lost or stolen."

Perbix's salary this year is $86,379. Cafiero, who supervises 16 technicians and administrative assistants, makes $105,569. Both have been with the Lower Merion district for 12 years, according to spokesman Douglas Young.

Their lawyers said the use of the software was no secret. On at least two occasions, the district turned over pictures and other information to Lower Merion police so they could help track stolen laptops.

The district even set up a secure Web site so the police could have access to pictures and other information, according to attorneys in the case.

"Quite honestly, the police knew about these devices," said Marc Neff, a lawyer representing Perbix. "They were not in the dark about the fact that these computers were being tracked."

The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district.

More than once, the motion asserts, a laptop camera took photos of Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins as he slept in his bed.

The motion, filed in federal court late Thursday by his lawyers, says that each time the camera took Robbins' picture, it fired the image off to network servers at the School District.

Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into "a little LMSD soap opera," a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.

"I know, I love it," she is quoted as having replied.

The motion offers a wider glimpse into the now-disabled program that spawned Robbins' lawsuit and has shined an international spotlight on the district.

In the filing, the Penn Valley family says the district's records show that the controversial tracking system captured more than 400 photos and screen images from 15-year-old Robbins' school-issued laptop during two weeks in the fall, and that "thousands of webcam pictures and screen shots have been taken of numerous other students in their homes."

Robbins and his parents, Michael and Holly, contend that e-mails turned over to them by the district suggest Cafiero "may be a voyeur" who might have viewed some of the photos on her home computer.

The motion says Cafiero, who has been placed on paid leave, has failed to turn that computer over to the plaintiffs despite a court order, and asks a judge to sanction her.

Cafiero's lawyer on Thursday night disputed the suggestion that his client had downloaded any such photos to her home computer. Lawyer Charles Mandracchia said Cafiero had cooperated with federal investigators and was willing to let technicians hired by the district examine her computer if the judge so ordered.

He also said Robbins' attorney had never asked him for Cafiero's personal computer. "He's making this up because his case is falling apart," Mandracchia said.

Since the Robbinses sued in February, district officials have acknowledged that they activated the theft-tracking software on school-issued laptops 42 times since September, and a number of times in the previous school year - all in order to retrieve lost or stolen computers.

But they have stopped short of specifying how many students may have been photographed and monitored, or how often - information that could shed light on whether Robbins' experience was unique or common.

An attorney for the district declined to comment Thursday night on the Robbinses' latest motion, except to say a report due in a few weeks will spell out what the district's own investigation has found.

"To the extent there is any evidence of misuse of any images, that also will be disclosed," said the attorney, former federal prosecutor Henry E. Hockeimer Jr. "However, at this late stage of our investigation we are not aware of any such evidence."

The Robbinses' lawyer, Mark S. Haltzman, said the new details had emerged in tens of thousands of pages of documents and e-mails the district turned over to him in recent weeks.

Three district employees have also given sworn depositions in the suit. A fourth, Cafiero, declined to answer Haltzman's questions, asserting her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

According to the latest filing by the Robbinses, officials first activated the tracking software on a school-issued Apple MacBook that Robbins took home on Oct. 20.

Hundreds of times in the next two weeks, the filing says, the program did its job each time it was turned on: A tiny camera atop the laptop snapped a photo, software inside copied the laptop screen image, and a locating device recorded the Internet address - something that could help district technicians pinpoint where the machine was.

The system was designed to take a picture every 15 minutes until it was turned off.

The material disclosed by the district contains hundreds of photos of Robbins and his family - "including pictures of Blake partially undressed and of Blake sleeping," the motion states.

Through Haltzman, the Robbinses on Thursday night gave The Inquirer a photo that they said was among the Web-cam images turned over by school officials. The picture shows Blake asleep in bed at 5 p.m. on Oct. 26, the lawyer said.

Robbins and his parents say they learned of the technology Nov. 11 when a Harriton assistant principal confronted the teen with an image collected by the tracking software.

Robbins has said one image showed him with a handful of Mike and Ike candies - which the administrator thought were illegal pills.

The family's lawyers have argued that neither Blake nor many of the other students whose laptop cameras were activated had reported those laptops missing or stolen. According to the motion, an unspecified number of laptops were being tracked because students had failed to return computers or pay a required insurance fee.

The district has said it turned on the camera in Robbins' computer because his family had not paid the $55 insurance fee and he was not authorized to take the laptop home.

U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois has ordered all parties in the case to meet by Tuesday, the latest step toward a settlement. Meanwhile, federal and county investigators are examining whether the laptop security program violated any laws.

Also Thursday, Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) introduced legislation to close what he said was a loophole in federal wiretap laws and prevent unauthorized monitoring. Specter recently held a hearing in Philadelphia on the issue.

"Many of us expect to be subject to certain kinds of video surveillance when we leave our homes and go out each day - at the ATM, at traffic lights, or in stores, for example," Specter, who is running for reelection, said on the floor of the Senate. "What we do not expect is to be under visual surveillance in our homes, in our bedrooms, and, most especially, we do not expect it for our children in our homes."

Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into "a little LMSD soap opera," a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.

I have a feeling this is going to get extremely creepy if they actually bother investigating it like they should.

As in, even creepier than it already is.

The craziest and most parodoxical thing, though - despite the fact that we have a sensationalistic media obsessed with pedos, technological fears, and general hysteria regarding teenagers, very few people will hear about this case, and lots of them won't even care about it. Just like the girl who got strip-searched over some Tylenol. They had to take that all the way to the Supreme Court and even then I don't think anyone got fired over it.